This is a collection of the records written by a journalist and an opinion-leader in the domain of religion: MATANI Ruikotsu(1869-1956). It is supplemented by the manuscripts and narratives of his adopted daughter Fumiko(1919-1999). As one of her sons, I used to listen to her tell of adventures in Kyoto, Yamaguchi, and Inner Mongolia during the time of Imperial Japan. At the age of five, she met with her mother’s mother Yone. Having grown up in a family belonging to the Feudal Clan of Mōri(todayʼs Yamaguchi), Yone herself was like a samurai. When Fumiko began working in the newspaper company Chūgai Nippō in 1928, the owner-editor of the paper Ruikotsu
made her to work as his secretary. Among many other celebrities, she encountered a vagabond Haiku poet Santōka. When she decided to seek refuge from the ultra-patriotism of Imperial Japan, she took a honeymoon in a remote place: Inner Mongolia, where her future husband worked for the intelligence services as a young Buddhist.